Munich City Council Seeks to Prohibit Shechita; German Jewish Leaders Assail Move

June 19, 1951

MUNICH (Jun. 18)

A resolution adopted by the Munich City Council calling on the Bavarian Parliament to enact legislation prohibiting Schechita, the slaughter of animals according to Jewish religious precepts, came under fire from German Jewish leaders today.

The resolution, introduced by the Socialists, was carried, 26 to 16, over the opposition of the Christian Socialist Party. In introducing the resolution, the Socialists argued that Schechita was cruel and a “crime against humanity.” It was, they said, prohibited in Norway and Switzerland for that reason.

City councillors Erwin Hamm and Otto Gritschneider, both Catholics, assailed the move, Hamm denouncing it as “pure anti-Semitism and discrimination and a result of a hostile attitude toward the Jews.” He said the Christian Socialist Party would oppose the measure because they did not want the German people to feel that the Catholics wanted to interfere with the freedom of the Jewish religion. The resolution was assailed today by Chief Rabbi Aron Ohrenstein and by Senator Julius Spaniel, president of the Jewish community, as a discriminatory measure.